[W.F. Lantry]

Huge congrats to Tammy Ho Lai-Ming and Jeff Zroback! AsianCha was named best journal in the world by the StorySouth Million Writers Award committee. A signal honor, and well deserved. Hurrah!

From the jury's citation: "The winner of this year's Million Writers Award for best publication is Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, which placed five stories on this year's notable list. Back in 2008 Cha was named our best new online magazine, so it's great to see them continuing to publish such great fiction."

Tammy is one of the most supportive editors around. She does so much for her authors, so it's nice to see her receive this recognition.

The award is for fiction, but I know several of the poets here have been published in Cha, so congrats all around!

Best,

Bill

[Marybeth Rua-Larsen]

This is great and well-deserved news! Congratulations to Cha, who in addition to publishing excellent poetry and fiction also publish essays and close reads on poems, which I have always appreciated. I somehow missed this on Facebook, so thanks for posting it here, Bill. I agree that Tammy and Jeff have worked hard for this honor.

[R. Nemo Hill]

The Best Journal in the World?!
Come now, enough with hyperbolic awarditis.

I mean, congratulations and all, but let's get real beyond the 'gold stars'.

Sincerely,
Captain Bringdown,

[Janice D. Soderling]

I wish the editors and the journal well and congratulations to them and here is some confetti and a magnum of bubbly.

But I strongly agree with the good Captain. Hyperbole seems to have gone viral and and now infects nearly every forum on this board.

[W.F. Lantry]

Originally Posted by R. Nemo Hill

Come now, enough

Sincerely,
Captain Bringdown

O captain, my captain,

Perhaps. But if one wanted to see what's actually going on in the world of contemporary fiction, one could do worse than to scan their list of nominated publications.

Established journals like The Barcelona Review alongside newcomers like Asymptote, distinguished venues like BLIP and experimental places like failbetter, hip places like Guernica and old fogeys like the Kenyon Review, personal favorites like Connotation Press and Eclectica vs. personal bugbears like Pank, from Anderbo to Agni, from Triquarterly to WordRiot, it's a pretty good survey of what's happening. Blue Print Review is in there, and Prick of the Spindle, and...

Just sticking to that list, one could read for days, from authors and venues all over the world, and come away still wanting more.

Best,

Bill

[Michael Cantor]

I'd like to nominate Jason Sanford and the entire staff of the StorySouth Million Writers Award Committee for the Nemo Hill Pan-Galactic Hyperbolic Award for Award Chutzpah for 2012, and suggest we stage a Million Poet March in their honor. (Since they're an internet journal, possibly we could all tramp up and down in front of our computers.) I haven't laughed so hard at one of these Lantrian announcements since you put up the one over a year ago, Bill, about being in the inaugural issue of a new Bosnia & Herzegovina journal, and Philip Quinlan, congratulating you, indicated that he'd found that market a tough one to crack and suggested the Ukraine, indicating, "Fertile ground. Not all tractors, as some would have you believe."

As others have indicated, congrats to all, and it's good to see a lively literary community and web presence, but let's not get swept away when a small journal with a bent for hyperbole runs a small contest among its readers and comes up with a huge name for the award.

[W.F. Lantry]

Thanks, Michael. Your message calls to mind the ancient Elvish tune, sung by Lavalier as the ship departs in Bored of the Rings:

"U canleada horsta wata, bwana,
Butyu canna makit drinque!"

Thanks,

Bill